Alex Salmond threatened to 'sabotage' any attempt by Westminster to hold a referendeum on Scottish independence

Alex Salmond is said to have threatened Chancellor George Osborne that he
would “sabotage” any attempt by Westminster to hold a referendum on Scottish
independence.

By Alan Cochrane and Auslan Cramb

10:52AM GMT 01 Nov 2011

The Scottish First Minister allegedly told the Chancellor that only his SNP administration in Edinburgh had the mandate to hold a vote on breaking up Britain and that he would organise a boycott of any referendum ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Alex Salmond threatened to 'sabotage' independence referendum held by Westminster

Pressure is now growing on the Coalition to forestall the SNP leader and organise an early vote on the future of the United Kingdom. Mr Salmond has said he will not have a referendum until the second half of his five year term in office, with 2014 – the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn – looking to be favourite.

However, Mr Salmond is said to have told Mr Osborne, at a recent meeting, that he would order the Scottish police and other services that are normally involved in such votes to prevent such a referendum from taking place.

The extraordinary claims came from Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the former Scottish Secretary, who told The Daily Telegraph: “ I had heard from very senior government sources that Mr Salmond had made this threat to the Chancellor.

“And when I asked Mr Osborne if what I’d heard was true, he told me that it was and that Mr Salmond had made the threat to him personally.”

Lord Forsyth raised the issue in the Lords when he asked Cabinet minister and Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Strathclyde to confirm that : "… privately the First Minister has been threatening Government ministers that if we constitute a legally conducted referendum campaign in Scotland he will make it his business to boycott that referendum and prevent the police and other services from seeing it carried out? Is the First Minister not getting a bit too big for his boots?"

Lord Forsyth did not mention Mr Osborne in his question to Lord Strathclyde, who said he could not confirm that such a threat had been made. However, Lord Strathclyde added: "But if it were true that he (Mr Salmond) would seek to frustrate a referendum in Scotland that had been legally and rightly established by the Westminster Parliament it would be the most extraordinary event.

“Surely the first person who should whoop for joy if there were to be a referendum on the issue of separation in Scotland should be

the First Minister?"

For Labour, Lord Davidson of Glen Clova, a former Scottish Advocate General, questioned whether the Scottish Parliament could "competently call a referendum onconstitutional change in Scotland".

Lord Strathclyde replied: "The fundamental principle which we believe applies is that matters concerning the Union of the Kingdom are a

reserved matter."

Lord Forsyth agreed with his Tory colleague and underlined that Westminster is now on a collision course with Mr Salmond’s SNP administration in Edinburgh – which won a huge victory in the May elections to the Scottish Parliament – over who is entitled to hold a referendum on Scottish independence.

Lord Forsyth said later: “ Alex Salmond knows perfectly well that the Scottish Parliament cannot properly and legally organise a referendum on Scottish independence or any constitutional question concerning the Union. That is reserved to Westminster.”

The terms of the 1998 Scotland Act, which paved the way for devolution, supports their lordships’ views but Mr Salmond believes that his crushing victory in the Holyrood elections five months ago supersedes that legislation.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond, who is on a trade mission to Qatar, said “We have no idea what Lord Forsyth is talking about - the reality is that the Scottish Government won a resounding mandate in May to deliver the referendum in the second half of this Holyrood term, a position accepted by the Prime Minister after the election.

"The UK Government has no mandate whatever on the referendum issue, and no amount of wishful thinking by Lord Forsyth can change that.”